Book Reviews

Why Not Women?  A Fresh Look at Scripture on Women in Missions, Ministry, and Leadership,Loren Cunningham and David Joel Hamilton, with Janice Rogers, YWAM Publishers, 2000. 228 pp. ISBN 1-5765-81837. $14.99. Reviewed by Elaine Sipe.

"When we look back on what Jesus did to release women and what the Holy Spirit has done in periods of revival and missionary fervor, we must determine to do everything in our power to release those whom God is calling today. It has been two thousand years since Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives.  It's time to set women free.  It's high time!"

This quote from Loren Cunningham expresses his dream and motivation for writing a book on the subject of women in mission, ministry and leadership. Having spent over forty years in the mission field and having observed the mighty working of the Holy Spirit through women, as well as the binding of the Spirit by human ideas that denied women the right to minister, he is passionate about calling the church to repent for ways God's work has been hindered and God's word misread regarding women in the church.

In Why Not Women? Cunningham teamed up with a student of the Word and fellow missionary, David Joel Hamilton, to produce a most valuable and very readable treatise on women and the public ministry. Hamilton's exegesis of the key Bible passages on women is thorough, convincing, and a joy to read. Illustrations of particularization and chiasm used by Paul to structure his arguments in the epistles to the early church are instructive, giving difficult passages meaning and relevance for the church and society today.

The book's back cover promises the reader an exploration of the value and roles of women throughout history and in the church today: "an examination of the fruit of women in public ministry" and "a hard-hitting revelation of what's at stake for women, men, [and] the Body of Christ." This book lives up to its promise and to its subtitle. Therefore, I highly recommend that you order Why Not Women?, read it, and then pass it on to someone you think "really ought" to read it. 

The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church: Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition,John Wijngaards, Continuum, 2001. 208 pp. ISBN 0-8264-1339-0. $22.95. Reviewed by Mary Todd.

John Wijngaards feels so strongly about the ordination of women that he resigned from the active priesthood to protest his church's position against it. A biblical scholar, he believes the prohibition is based on "cultural discrimination, not scriptural inspiration." He explains how that has happened through what he calls the cuckoo's egg tradition. (The cuckoo invades the nest of other birds to lay its egg, which not only imitates the host eggs, but once hatched, ousts them from the nest.)

The Vatican, of course, has declared that it may not even consider the ordination of women and that the question is closed to discussion. Wijngaards is among those who respectfully disagree, as he does on his extensive website, www.womenpriests.org , portions of which he cites for his readers at the end of each chapter of this methodical and careful study. He writes what he does because he believes that "truth is more important than diplomacy."

Wijngaards' manifesto is hardly a screed. It is instead a thoughtful, reasoned discussion of the multiple arguments for and against the ministry of women, a ministry he believes is theirs through baptism and through creation in the image of God. His study addresses scripture, church history, tradition and culture, and is particularly strong in debunking his church's claim that women may not be priests because Jesus did not select any women as disciples.

While our tradition differs from the Catholic, and the arguments put forward by the synod differ from those of the Vatican, Lutherans can learn from this book. Most valuable to Missouri Synod readers will be Wijngaards' careful explication of scripture and how it has been used to justify the prohibition of women in the pastoral office. But the comprehensive nature of this book is too important to suggest a reader pick and choose from its very readable chapters. To look for proof texts would both deny oneself an engaging read and miss the holistic nature of the woman problem in churches that continue to limit their service.